Mike_HP
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Now about the finale. On the second day, in the first half during the replay, Van finally managed to finish off Dust, who, like me, carelessly gave him a dungeon. We agreed to play the final in the evening, as both needed rest — after all, the night before we had played second games and slept little. We started around 8 PM, playing on SoD with 6-minute timer, using a program for quick troop and artifact exchange between heroes. This time, the draft pleased me — Van unexpectedly didn't ban Conflux and instead of the expected Castle-Barbarian pair, we got Conflux-Castle. And I never refuse to play Conflux.
Deep Mike (blue, Conflux, random, Grindan) def Van (red, Castle, Valeska), 2sm4d(3), 1-2-5
We used 3 restarts, I still had 1-1-3 left. An incredible number of shooter guards were generated — on the very first steps, 74 upgraded gremlins killed many of my butterflies; on the first day, I also broke through a block of Castle shooters on the road up and halfings guarding an artifact +4 attack. There were few elementals, they weren't built, but with Lacus came 2 stacks of water elementals. The road up turned out to be completely blocked by crossbowmen, down was a ГО, of course also shooter-guarded — liches, and to the right was a fork to a dungeon secondary through medusae. On day 3, I decided to take a crypt along the way (also guarded by shooters) and break through the medusae, then decide whether to take the rest or play. The crypt was small, without losses; I also broke through the medusae without critical losses despite the upgraded stack. On the same day, after killing some upgraded gremlins behind them, I scouted an area that showed the dungeon had enough resources to build phoenixes in the first week — I decided to play. Especially since I visited the dungeon's stable and a +1 magic boost on the respawn. After taking the dungeon, I had an army of 12 water elementals and 5 elementals. I picked up 2 harpies and troglodytes there, then went into a crypt on muddy terrain — it turned out to be maximum. I had little mana; first I slowed everyone, then had enough for a 70-damage shot on the vampires, but I took it successfully, losing only 1 or 2 water elementals from my own. At the very end of the week, I still had money problems — the chest gave me an artifact +1+1 to magic instead of gold, and above the castle, a block of 20 upgraded gargoyles prevented passage to gold. But I broke through them with the secondary hero, transferring artifacts and water elementals from Grindan, and gathered the missing gold — as a result, phoenixes were built in the fort in the first week. On the second week, the plan was to build a mana vortex in the dungeon and, mid-week, go from the dungeon through the passage to the opponent's respawn, especially since his castle was quite close and visible through the scout. The ground view showed the red player had two grass secondaries from the first week — I feared one might be his native, so delaying wasn't an option. In case of an early castle assault, Grindan prudently took and leveled ballistics. Grindan was already preparing to attack when Valya entered my respawn through a side passage from the other side. A castle swap didn't suit me, so Grindan, having received troops brought in the day before, took a hive for 6 vives behind upgraded dendroids and headed home, stopped by an untaken medusa den. The secondary hero took the medusa den, used the gold to buy out Grindan, and returned his army through the chain. Valeska didn't flee but even moved closer to my castle — the opponent mistakenly thought that side of my territory was unexplored, but I saw everything perfectly. And on 1-2-5, having restored mana, Grindan, boosted on phoenixes, attacked Valya. I had an excellent artifact — the Spirit of Oppression, taken by the secondary hero behind the mentioned block of halberdiers, so all of Vale's morale was broken. Her power stats were significantly higher, but she had no spell book at all, and against mass slow, phoenix strikes on wait, and a 100-damage shot with 73 mana, she had no chance — her shooters only killed 1 phoenix before dying. Surrender followed. The draft was largely decisive in this game.
Finally, Dirty Player and Logistik got revenge on me in chess — my head was too fried after Heroes. But on the last night, quite unexpectedly for myself, I also won at poker, though it was clear several people had more experience than me ).
Overall, the event took place in the friendliest atmosphere — I think everyone was satisfied, shared experience, and each probably learned something new. I've been thinking about what allows me to win — after all, what was said above about a "living legend" and "papal level" is a strong exaggeration; I treat Heroes as relaxation and don't engage in any training to improve skill at all. The same Kostya is clearly more technically savvy than me. Probably Dust, who really understands Heroes, accurately characterized the main point of my style — I don't remember verbatim, but the gist is that I don't do anything unnecessary. Just reliable play with minimal risk and fast, economically sound development. Well, I'm certainly ready to offer an online rematch to any willing participants when free time allows ).
Deep Mike (blue, Conflux, random, Grindan) def Van (red, Castle, Valeska), 2sm4d(3), 1-2-5
We used 3 restarts, I still had 1-1-3 left. An incredible number of shooter guards were generated — on the very first steps, 74 upgraded gremlins killed many of my butterflies; on the first day, I also broke through a block of Castle shooters on the road up and halfings guarding an artifact +4 attack. There were few elementals, they weren't built, but with Lacus came 2 stacks of water elementals. The road up turned out to be completely blocked by crossbowmen, down was a ГО, of course also shooter-guarded — liches, and to the right was a fork to a dungeon secondary through medusae. On day 3, I decided to take a crypt along the way (also guarded by shooters) and break through the medusae, then decide whether to take the rest or play. The crypt was small, without losses; I also broke through the medusae without critical losses despite the upgraded stack. On the same day, after killing some upgraded gremlins behind them, I scouted an area that showed the dungeon had enough resources to build phoenixes in the first week — I decided to play. Especially since I visited the dungeon's stable and a +1 magic boost on the respawn. After taking the dungeon, I had an army of 12 water elementals and 5 elementals. I picked up 2 harpies and troglodytes there, then went into a crypt on muddy terrain — it turned out to be maximum. I had little mana; first I slowed everyone, then had enough for a 70-damage shot on the vampires, but I took it successfully, losing only 1 or 2 water elementals from my own. At the very end of the week, I still had money problems — the chest gave me an artifact +1+1 to magic instead of gold, and above the castle, a block of 20 upgraded gargoyles prevented passage to gold. But I broke through them with the secondary hero, transferring artifacts and water elementals from Grindan, and gathered the missing gold — as a result, phoenixes were built in the fort in the first week. On the second week, the plan was to build a mana vortex in the dungeon and, mid-week, go from the dungeon through the passage to the opponent's respawn, especially since his castle was quite close and visible through the scout. The ground view showed the red player had two grass secondaries from the first week — I feared one might be his native, so delaying wasn't an option. In case of an early castle assault, Grindan prudently took and leveled ballistics. Grindan was already preparing to attack when Valya entered my respawn through a side passage from the other side. A castle swap didn't suit me, so Grindan, having received troops brought in the day before, took a hive for 6 vives behind upgraded dendroids and headed home, stopped by an untaken medusa den. The secondary hero took the medusa den, used the gold to buy out Grindan, and returned his army through the chain. Valeska didn't flee but even moved closer to my castle — the opponent mistakenly thought that side of my territory was unexplored, but I saw everything perfectly. And on 1-2-5, having restored mana, Grindan, boosted on phoenixes, attacked Valya. I had an excellent artifact — the Spirit of Oppression, taken by the secondary hero behind the mentioned block of halberdiers, so all of Vale's morale was broken. Her power stats were significantly higher, but she had no spell book at all, and against mass slow, phoenix strikes on wait, and a 100-damage shot with 73 mana, she had no chance — her shooters only killed 1 phoenix before dying. Surrender followed. The draft was largely decisive in this game.
Finally, Dirty Player and Logistik got revenge on me in chess — my head was too fried after Heroes. But on the last night, quite unexpectedly for myself, I also won at poker, though it was clear several people had more experience than me ).
Overall, the event took place in the friendliest atmosphere — I think everyone was satisfied, shared experience, and each probably learned something new. I've been thinking about what allows me to win — after all, what was said above about a "living legend" and "papal level" is a strong exaggeration; I treat Heroes as relaxation and don't engage in any training to improve skill at all. The same Kostya is clearly more technically savvy than me. Probably Dust, who really understands Heroes, accurately characterized the main point of my style — I don't remember verbatim, but the gist is that I don't do anything unnecessary. Just reliable play with minimal risk and fast, economically sound development. Well, I'm certainly ready to offer an online rematch to any willing participants when free time allows ).